Jean Cocteau in front of the Mirror of Orfeo

This article will identify the symbolic elements present in The blood of a poet with the myth of Orpheus, anticipating how this avant-garde film prefigured the poetic universe that Jean Cocteau would develop throughout his career. The formation of the imaginary of Cocteau was marked from his childhood by the traumatic death of his father that his mother wanted to compensate overprotecting him. Through the symbology present in his first film we will establish analogies and relationships between the author’s own biography, references to the myth of Orpheus and the interpretation that other artists close to surrealism made of these elements.